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Your backyard wedding will likely be tented for the wedding reception. Your planner, tent supplier, or caterer will be able to help you with your tent floor plan, but I wanted to go over the basics with you. A good general rule of thumb is that for every five-foot round table seating eight to ten guests, you will need ten square feet of space in the tent. You will also need space for a dance floor, your DJ or band, a cake table, a bar, and maybe a buffet or coffee and dessert station.
Below, I show how a standard 60-foot by 40-foot frame tent can be used in two different ways. With a DJ, you can accommodate more guests. Conversely, if you have a live band, you will either need a smaller guest list, or a larger tent. Reminder: if you have a pole tent, you have to plan around the center poles.
If you want more info about dinner tables, I wrote a small PDF about how many seats fit at a table.
Floor Plan for Tented Wedding: 120 seats
In hindsight, this band stage, and this dance floor, are probably too small! But there is space to go wider, especially if you don’t have a dinner buffet.
Floor Plan for Tented Wedding: 160 seats
This dance floor is definitely too small for 160 guests, in hindsight. But the dance floor could be made to be wider.
Check out my foundational home wedding blog posts about: backyard wedding tents, wedding tent flooring, professional lighting for your backyard wedding, restrooms for your backyard wedding, utilities for your backyard wedding, and making a smart transportation plan for your backyard wedding.
